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Emily Thompson

In the Spotlight

Emily Thompson is all theater, all the time. A resident of North Hollywood, Calif., she was involved in just about every theater production offered at Northwestern, from the Dolphin Show to Waa-Mu, and she sees no reason to leave the arts now that her days at Northwestern are numbered.

In fact, after participating in Northwestern’s Senior Showcase in New York City over spring break, her career is just beginning. She was one of 16 students from the University’s Music Theatre Program selected to attend the Showcase, where her audition earned her meetings with several talent agents and Warner Bros. television casting.

As a student Thompson had principal roles in the first two productions of the American Music Theatre Project, a workshop designed to allow professional writers to develop new musicals with the help and input of theater students. The project’s director, Dominic Missimi, describes Thompson as driven and creative, qualities she exhibited through her involvement with the Waa-Mu Show. She worked on the crew during her freshman year and acted in each of the next three shows, and she’s also been on the Waa-Mu executive board each of the past two years. She was rewarded for her commitment to Waa-Mu during her junior year, when she received the organization’s Sarah Siddons Society scholarship.

Thompson will be acting on campus this summer in the AMTP’s In the Bubble, a new musical directed by Michael Greif, who directed Rent during its run on Broadway. As the summer winds down, Thompson plans to stay in touch with the New York talent agents she met over spring break. “Music theater is my main focus, but I would love to do anything — straight plays, television, film,” Thompson says. “I couldn’t complain if something else fell into place.”

— Ryan Haggerty (J07)

Photo by Andrew Campbell